Railway car



July 16, 1940; o. JABELMANN RAILWAY CAR Filed Feb. 27, 1939 Zinnentor (Ittornegs Patented July 16, 1940 UNITED sTATEs PATEN OFFICE i 2 Claims.

This invention relates to railway cars and particularly to the rear end car on streamlined high speed trains.

In streamlined trains the rear end car has been 5 tapered in order to reduce eddying and drag at the rear of the train. This imposes severe limitations in the capacity of the car and on the seating arrangement. The purpose of the present invention is to permit the use, at the rear end of the rear car, of a more nearly conventional form, without entailing the usual severe losses caused by eddying and the suction effect of the train.

Another purpose of the invention is to minimize 5 rising air currents at the rear of the train.

To bring about the desired results, the car is given in plan a conventional or untapered form. The roof of the car in the central portion thereof is so constructed that it slopes downward very Qt) gradually toward the rear and is curved or faired into the rear wall of the car. This taper, however, is wholly insufficient for streamlining, and to produce the desired action a false roof or cowling with entrance wind-scoop is mounted 35 above the rear half of the sloping portion of the car roof and is curved so as to discharge air directly across the rear end of the car in a generally downward direction.

The air scoop mounted at the entrance of the 30 duct between the roof and false roof, projects above the false roof, and to minimize eddying over the false roof a single narrow louver forming a sort of wing slot is mounted above the air scoop.

35 The purpose of the scheme is to deliver air to the space at the rear of the train at a rate so rapid that the reduction of air pressure at the rear of the train is minimized, if not completely eliminated.

40 The duct above mentioned cannot conveniently extend over the entire width of the car roof, but should be made as wide as possible with due regard to other factors. A plurality of flow defining vanes are provided and these are bent lat- 45 erally at their discharge ends to distribute the discharging air, so far as practicable, over the entire rear end area of the car.

A serious difiiculty which has been encountered with streamlined trains is the sharp rise 50 of air flowing from beneath the car at the rear.

This carries dust and gravel and is quite annoying, particularly at high train speeds. To prevent this, a louvered skirt structure depending beneath the floor of the car is mounted at the 55 rear end of the car and is so arranged as to impart to the dischargingair a sharp downward component. This, together with the relief afforded by air delivered from the roof, substantially eliminates the rise of dust laden air at the rear of the train. 5 The invention will now be described in detail in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which a Figure '1 is a plan view of the rear end of such a car, parts being broken away to show the flow l0 directing elements.

Figure 2 is an elevation of the same, with parts broken away.

Figure 3 is an elevation of the rear end of the car also with parts broken away.

In thedrawing no attempt has been made to show the framing structure of the car or to 11- lustrate windows or any accessory parts. The design of these features will conform to known practice.

In Figure 2, 6 represents the fioor'line of the car and l the roof line. In the rear portion of the car and for an overall width equal to about half the width of the car, the roof is depressed so as to taper downward toward the rear, as indicated at 8, and finally is faired or rounded as indicated at 9, into the rear wall H of the car. The effect is to produce a depressed channel whose side margins are indicated at l2 and I3 on Figure 1.

A series of vertical straight guide vanes are mounted in this trough as indicated at M. They not only serve to permit air flow through the trough, but they also serve to support and 0011-. nect with the car body a false roof 15 which is spaced from the roof 8 and 9 and flares therefrom slightly, producing a downward curving duct which offers an air flow path of increasing transverse area. The false roof l5 does not extend forward to the commencement of the tapered portion 8 of the car roof, but extends only about halfway from the rear of the car to that point. It ends at the rear adjacent the lower margin of this curved or faired portion 9 of the roof.

At its forward end the false. roof carries a flaring entrance wind scoop l6, and on this is mounted a small louver or vane [1.

The scoop delivers air to the passage between the car roof 8 and the false roof I5 and the vane 11 tends to smooth out the air flow over the top of the false roof l5. Because the air duct between the roof 8 and the false roof I5 does not extend the entire width of the car, the lower ends of the vanes l4 are bent laterally outward as indicated at is in Figure 3. The purpose is to tends continuously across the car, and the drawing indicates their omission. Such vanes should be used wherever needed to even the distribution of discharging air. V

The downward flow of air tends to resist the rise of dust carrying air. However, to intensify this desirable effect the car is provided with a skirt I9 which extends below the car floor-line.

6 and across the ends of the car. At the ends of the car it is provided with a number of louvers 2!, three being shown, and these louvers incline downward toward the rear, so that air discharging from beneath the floor of the car at the rear end of the car is given a sharp downward com ponent which will further resist the rise of dust laden air at the rear of the train.

The described arrangement permits material increase in the floor areas of the last car of a streamlined train, and avoids the use of special seating arrangements which require special equipment and which unduly consume space. The performance from the standpoint of train resistance is as good or nearly as good as that given by a conventionally streamlined train.

Theperformance', so far as dust effects at the rear of the train are concerned, is better than that of the conventional streamlined train. For purposes of illustration, the one desirable arrangement has been shown, but particular cases may require modifications and changes in detail,

particularly in contours, width of duct, and! location and form of the vanes. Consequently the description above given is intended to be illustrative and not limiting.

What is claimed is:

1. A rear end car for streamlined trains comprising a body substantially devoid of longitudinal taper, having an arched roof and having a substantially vertical closed rear wall; an air duct formed by a depression in the center portion of the roof which deepens gradually toward the rear end and then curves into tangency with the rear wall; and a wind scoop structure overlying the rear portion of said duct and generally forming a continuation of the arched roof but curving downward and flaring from the rear wall to form a canopy which serves to discharge air vertically downward across said closed rear end.

2. A rear end car for streamlined trains comprising a body substantially devoid of longitudinal taper, having anarched roof and having a substantially vertical closed rear wall; an air duct formed by a depression in the center portion of the roof which deepens gradually toward the rear end and then curves into tangency with the rear wall; a wind scoop structure overlying the rear portion of said duct and generally forming a continuation of the arched roof but curving downward and flaring from the rear wall to form a canopy which serves to discharge air vertically downward across said closed rear end; and flarlng vanes in the discharge end of said duct serv- I ing to distribute thedischarging air over substan- 

